Doctor Answers (45)

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Breast implants and pregnancy.

September 3rd, 2014

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Thank you for your question.

With pregnancy, the breast certainly enlarges. Generally it is not a painful process. Women do get a sense of being engorged. If there are going to be stretch marks it is not from the implant, but from the hormones of pregnancy and the enlargement of the natural breast tissue.

I think of three groups when I think of the post pregnancy breast with implants.

In group one the breasts will swell up, and then shrink up after pregnancy but look about the same. Unfortunately, this is the rarest case.

In group two, the breasts will swell, and then after they shrink up there will be some degree of droop or laxity, which does not require surgery and in fact can sometimes make the breast look even more natural than with an implant alone. This is common.

In the third group the breast will swell up but after it shrinks up it will take on so much droop or laxity that make patients may consider a larger implant to fill out the loose skin, or a lift or tightening of the breast.

Unfortunately you just can't know which group you're going to be in until after childbearing. The key is to know that there are always a options available to you.

Breast Implants and Pregnancy

September 29th, 2012

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Thank you for your question. Pregnancy after having breast implants is quite common. The breast will enlarge during pregnancy but I have never known of a patient who found this painful or who had problems.

The breast gland does atrophy after pregnancy and will probably be smaller than before pregnancy. The implants can help maintain your breast size.

Be careful about weight gain during pregnancy. If you gain too much weight too fast then the breast may sag and require lifting after pregnancy.

Pregnancy after Breast Implants

November 10th, 2009

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Patients with breast implants will notice enlargement of the breasts with the hormonal surge that is associated with pregnancy. This increase in volume will resolve once pregnancy and breast feeding is completed. The enlargement of the breasts may be associated with stretch marks if there is rapid weight gain or enlargement of the breast with pregnancy.

Breast Implants Pictures

How do breasts with implants change with pregnancy?

January 17th, 2012

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Your breasts will change with pregnancy, that is a given. They will enlarge, but the degree of enlargement is going to be different for every woman. Changes will come with that enlargement. At the very least, the skin will become looser, and frequently the breasts will be smaller after pregnancy. Because the skin will stretch, stretch marks may form, and this is also common.

When breast implants are placed before pregnancy, they do sometimes cause stretch marks, but not that often. The occurrence of stretch marks after breast augmentation is unpredictable, but much less common than after pregnancy, so one could say that having implants is not going to result in more stretch marks after pregnancy than if the implants had not been present.

What you may note after pregnancy is that the implants do not sit as high and fill out the breast/skin envelope as before. Some women will then choose to have a second augmentation or lift/augmentation combination, because as they say, the breasts are less “perky”. Using a larger implant will fill up the skin envelope, or if the skin is too loose, a skin-reducing lift can restore the original higher position of the implant. If tightness without change in volume is desire, only a lift can be done.

Breast Implants Before Pregnancy

February 24th, 2011

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About sixty percent of my patients undergo breast augmentation before they have children. However, if a patient is expecting to become pregnant within 6 to 12 months of the augmentation, I suggest that she postpone the augmentation until after the birth of her child. By allowing a year interval, the effects of the surgery will be completely healed and the presentation of the breasts will be easily identified. I routinely place the implants beneath the muscle, which helps prevent adding additional stress to the skin during pregnancy. It also does not interfere with the possibility of breast-feeding. Pregnancy itself frequently causes changes in the shape of the breast, withch are unpredictable. In our experience the breast implants do not cause those changes to be anything more than would be expected.

Breast Implants before pregnancy will have variable results

February 22nd, 2010

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This is really a complicated issue in that unless you have already been pregnant you realy don't know how your individual breasts will react when your milk comes in. Most patients increase by a cup size with engorgement which in most cases won't cause any trouble IF a reasonable sized implant was used in the first place-- that is, one that matched the original breast tissue. In fact, the majority of my patients who get pregnant after having implants do well and probably come out looking better than if they hadn't had implants in the beginning. The breast typically deflates a bit after the first pregnancy and having an implant in place already helps camouflage this.

If however, you have overly large implants to begin with, usually 400cc or more, then the additional increase in size of engorgement on top of tissues that are probably being stretched beyond their limit may just be the straw that breaks the camel's back. Just one more reason to be sure to have a realistic size implant in the first place.

Pregnancy after Breast Augmentation

November 10th, 2009

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Since so many of my patients who have breast augmentation are in their 20's and 30's, it is very common for them to become pregnant afterwards. Most patients will return to their pre-pregnancy breast size once they are done breast-feeding. Occasionally, patients will lose some volume once they have finished breast-feeding but for the most part they remain happy with their size.

Breast Shape After Aug and Pregnancy

March 24th, 2009

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Thanks for your question -

It is a complicated question. It does make some sense that during pregnancy your breast size will likely increase. The implants will probably add to that total final volume - meaning that your pregnancy breasts will be larger with implants than without.

Whether that will lead to stretch marks or breast sagging is impossible to say for sure and whether you would have had the same problems of stretch marks or sagging with or without implants is also impossible to say.

Breast implants and pregnancy

September 9th, 2012

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If you are planning an imminent pregnancy, I would recommend waiting until after pregnancy to have breast augmentation. Women's breasts get larger with pregnancy and breast feeding. Most breast will return to a near baseline size. Some breasts will lose volume and appear deflated and some will stay larger than before pregnancy. There is no way to predict this since it has to do with the sensitivity of the breast tissue to the hormones. Therefore, since it is difficult to predict how the breast will look, I would recommend waiting until after pregnancy, so that a more consistent breast augmentation result can be achieved. If you are going to get pregnant in several years and desire breast augmentation, this would make more sense to have it done before pregnancy. Stretch marks are also somewhat unpredictable. A women can get stretch marks with pregnancy and breast feeding. This can also happen with breast augmentation, although rare. This is dependent on the skin quality and the degree to which the skin is stretched.

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